Today's Stichomancy for Karl Rove

The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Moon-Face and Other Stories by Jack London:

MR. EBEN HALE, Money Baron:

Dear Sir,--Pursuant of our policy, with which we flatter ourselves you are
already well versed, we beg to state that we shall give a passport from this
Vale of Tears to Inspector Bying, with whom, because of our attentions, you
have become so well acquainted. It is his custom to be in his private office
at this hour. Even as you read this he breathes his last.

Cordially yours,

THE MINIONS OF MIDAS.

I dropped the letter and sprang to the telephone. Great was my relief when I
heard the Inspector's hearty voice. But, even as he spoke, his voice died away
in the receiver to a gurgling sob, and I heard faintly the crash of a falling